Musings from Mandy

The most chatty Joshua I have every seen!

It's kind of like someone took this picture specifically for me. Like they said, "Hey, look at Paps and Mikey sitting there drinking beers, playing cribbage, you know who would love this picture, Amanda. I better take it for her" Joshua's girlfriend. Now, I'm not saying that Josh isn't infinitely hotter because he plays baseball than he actually is. I'm just saying his girlfriend is...surprising. Manny and Okie drinking wine. My only question is, where is Papi in all these pictures? Maybe these are Papi's pictures? Maybe he took them for me? Papi's probably sitting on the floor indian style between the pilots touching buttons and trying to grab the controller with a huge grin on his face. I mean, how great are these pictures? Kansas City who? Whoever took them, thank you for bringing them into my life.

Well, I'm back. I hope everyone missed me. I'm starting off today with a Home Run Derby recap and will then have a road trip recap later on today. The quote of the road trip definitely goes to our cab driver the last night who said, "You girls know what the best thing about Detroit is? Chicago is only 3 and a 1/2 hours away". Right on sir, right on. We have a pregame concert by the Counting Crows, which, whatever, but we do also have....Mike Lowell videotaping the CC with baby Mike Lowell! This is absolutely my favorite part of the HR derby, cute pictures of cute players with cute little kids. The Home Run Derby starts off with all the players being introduced by the always horrific Chris Berman. Honestly! What does he bring to the table? He's just loud and annoying and I don't know anyone besides Bill Belichick that likes him. I can't wait for him to tell us that a ball is hit to Japan when we clearly see it landing in the bleachers. Grrr. We ...

Went to the Rangers game last night. I really wanted to get there early and yell at the Texas players how weak their fans are and how annoying the song, "Deep in the Heart of Texas" clap clap clap, but I had to return some overdue library books and go to the ATM on the way. As Katie and I were cutting through the common, a man yelled to us, "Going to the game?", we told him we were, and he asked who they were playing, we told him Texas, and he proceeded to argue that we were actually playing the Devil Rays and that Matsuzaka was pitching. You're a day early, buddy. Don't let this pony tail fool you Sir, I know my shit. There was no line at the Cask and Flagon, so we had to stop in and have a beverage. The Old Cask is 10 times better than the new Cask, by the way. Anyway, two drinks later we head into Fenway and stop behind home plate to watch the pre-game stuff and come to realize we are standing right next to Larry Lucchino donning a red hat with the...

I know I slacked on Thursday and Friday, but who wants to talk about losses? or 32 year old guard? Not me. Anyway, the Sox came home yesterday and all was well in Red Sox Nation. Wake pitched great. Delcarmen got the job done. (How cute was it when Mikey went out to talk to him?). Then, Mr. Jonathan Papelbon came out to close things in the 9th in grand fashion. A K, a very long fly ball, then an extremely close play at first where it looked like got him on the replay, but, as we all know, ties go to the runner, Kenny Lofton in this case. Cinco-Ocho took exception, and had a few, er, many choice words for the umpire, until the little second baseman that could came over and pushed him away. (Thank God he didn't get tossed). He came back, hit Jerry Hairston on the hand. Regained his composure, and came back to get the K to end the game. I've watched the game twice, once in real time, once on the midnight replay, and now it's on again in the backround. One thing ...

As we all know, yesterday the best pitcher in the AL this year, Josh Beckett, faced off against the best pitcher in the NL, Jake Peavy. Peavy was out-dueled by Beckett, so this mornings feature is dedicated to two of the hottest pitchers in baseball (and I'm not just talking about their pitching). Age Beckett: 27 Peavy: 26 Birthdate Beckett: May 15, 1980 Peavy: May 31, 1981 Throws Beckett: Righty Peavy: Righty Bats Beckett: Righty Peavy: Righty Hometown Beckett: Spring TX Peavy: Mobile, AL Marital Status Beckett: Single Peavy: Married to Katie Children Beckett: None that we know of Peavy: Jacob Edward II and Wyatt Draft Status Beckett: First Round, Second Pick, by the Florida Marlins in 1999 draft Peavy: 15th Round by the San Diego Padres MLB Debut Beckett: September 4, 2001 Peavy: June 22, 2002 Injuries Beckett: Blisters Peavy: Shoulder tendenitis from over throwing / poor mechanics in the World Baseball Classic. Legal Troubles Beckett: None Peavy: Was arrested outside Mobile Cou...

So, turns out I didn't read much Sox news today. As great as Curt was, I didn't want to read about a near no-no. Anyways, Surviving Grady and Basegirl both did kick ass jobs recapping last night. Oh, and Katie and I had an IM conversation, and then exact contents showed up on Soxaholix . Because, I guess all great minds of RSN think alike. My favorite line from SG, Anyway, tonight we head to Areezonah where Beckett goes for number 9. Let's hope the bats show up. Especially Lugo's, as he's my second favorite player on the team. Of course, my first favorite is every other Sox player. My favorite line from Basegirl, But seriously, if I've told y'all once, I've told y'all a thousand times: Don't shake off 'Tek! The "y'all" in that sentence obviously referring to major league pitchers who stubbornly refuse to listen to me because I know that none of the lovely people that actually read this damn thing would DARE to shake off Ja...

Who would have thought a 1-0 CG shutout by Curt would carry such a sting? I got home from my company picnic in the top of the 7th. Sat down at the computer and tried to turn on the TV but the remote wasn't working, so I decided to check Surviving Grady, then go over and turn on the TV. In the comments, I saw someone mention the word, "perfection". I was in a bit of a quandry now. Is Curt pitching a No-No? A perfect game even? Do I turn on the TV or just go about my day as I was? Eventually I decide it is okay to turn on the TV, seeing there is still a full 3 innings to go. Then, I blew the whole freaking thing... After the 7th, Paul gets home from work and comes into the living room. He checks the Sox score. I look at him and say, "Paul, the Red Sox have all the hits today". And he looks at me confused, I repeat myself. Paul smiles and sits down on the couch, saying nothing, as is the custom not to blow these kind of things. My mom comes in and asks me to finish...

* Someone is going to be in the dog house . *Trot Nixon deserves the tip of a dirty hat . The only other time I've heard applause that loud was when the Sox came back against the Yankees and Okajima got the save earlier in the year. It was awesome. *The Sox right now, it appears, can do no wrong . Josh Beckett came back from his 15 days on the DL and got his MLB leading 8th victory . *Roger Clemens will not make his first start against the Sox, and the Red Sox are skipping Tavarez's start to align their rotation against the Yanks. It will be Wang and Wake Friday, Moose and Schill Saturday, and Andy and Joshua on Sunday. Tavarez's next start will be against the A's on Monday, with Matsuzaka taking the ball the following day. (Also in there it says Ortiz took BP yesterday, but his hammy is still bothering him.)

Well, how about them Red Sox? The Sox doubled up on the Tigers twice yesterday, beating the Tigers 2-1 in the first game, with Julian Taverez pitching a great game, going seven innings, allowing four hits and one run. Coco scored a run on a Manny RBI (both members of Sox Stalkers, not that it does me a whole hell of a lot of good), and then Okajima pitched a scoreless 8th and Papelbon K'ed the first two outs of the 9th before getting a weak grounder to Lugo for the last out. Tavarez also had a fantastic quote. "Jonathan, we call him 'Gasolina'. This guy goes six, seven days without pitching and then he goes out there and throws 95, 96 without walking anybody. No panic with Pap. Once the game gets to the ninth inning, it's over. That's how we see it with Jonathan." *Curt beat the Tigers 4-2 in the second game (although of course didn't get the win, because that would help my fricking fantasy team). (Confession time - I don't know too much about w...

Awesome game last night. Here are a few random thoughts because I'm too tired to put together a coherant paragraph. *I'm very thankful that Curtis Granderson's HR didn't end up being the difference, after I jokingly cheered for him during introductions and kept singing his praises the first few innings.(he's a SoxStalker {my fantasy team} and he writes a great blog on MLB Insider on ESPN.com) *Me and Katie were annoyingly keeping any eye on the empty owner's seats, and eventually they appeared to be filled with a tall blond and a tall dark haired gentleman with slight sideburns. We both immediately got nervous that it was Tom, so I had to go down and investigate. Alas, it was not Tom. I did find it funny thought that in the owners seats John Henry sat in the 2nd row and let his guests sit in the first. It wasn't a completely wasted trip however, because I did have a sweet seat for an inning or so. *And on the way back up I saw Mrs. Papelbon, Mrs. Varite...

Manny lovingly stroking Julian Tavarez from the other night. Joshua goes for 7-0 tonight...weee! (this may be it for the day unless something groundbreaking happens, got a lot of work to do!).

Ryan Hollweg does his pregame routine. He's a forward for the NY Rangers. As for the Sox, Joshua is dominating just as I knew he would, and hey, look at that, Wily Mo didn't strike out once. Good win, I'll take it. I wish that our rotation was in a different order for this weekend, but, Tavarez is due for a good start. Right? Due? Overdue even? Even in April, doesn't get much better than that. Matsuzka tonight, Vince Wilfork's Draft Party tomorrow, and then some more Sox Yankees for the rest of the weekend! And it's the weekend!

First of all, no links today, I have spent all day looking at the Virginia Tech reports. Such a terrible tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with those poor kids and families today. Here are some pictures from me and Katelyn's Red Sox outing on Saturday for Curt's start against the Angels. We had standing room but found a pretty good spot and a very nice and cute boy named Kevin who sat in front of us. As for the Sox, for the record, I don't think you can sweep the series when a game is postponed. I think if they win on the makeup then it is a sweep. I think MLB should stop scheduling West Coast team's one trip to the East Coast in April. Seattle has a roof and Anaheim is alway nice, why not start there. I think that I'm not engraving Josh's Cy Young yet. But I'm giddy none the less. I'm glad we are heading to a dome so we have a somewhat return to normalcy schedule wise / I have some time to watch games on TV rather than in person (that was ...

Now that is a little more like it. The Red Sox, now .500 on the season, defeated the Kansas City Royals 7-1. Josh pitched 5 strong giving up 1 earned run. He might have been able to go another inning if he didn't have to get 5 outs in the 3rd because of Mike Lowell's two errors. Mike had 3, THREE, errors yesterday, after having 6 all of last season. I'm going to hit him some ground balls in Texas this weekend though, so we'll get that worked out. The bullpen pitched well with Lopez, Snyder, Romero, and Pineiro giving up no runs. And in other news, Coco Crisp is 0 for the season. if anyone hasn't seen the Dice-K Nike commercial yet, I highly recommend you go to www.nesn.com and watch it. Can you say goosebumps? *Gordon Edes has a game report , saying tht the Sox withstood the cold and errors. *Mike Lowell talks about his errors with Michael Silverman and Nick Cafardo . Dice-K takes to the mound for the first time in a Red Sox uniform today. Because of Conti...

HAPPY 100th POST to ME, and you! so my timing didn't quite work out to coincide with my return from Texas, oh well... Working through lunch today to get a blog update for you. (okay that's a lie, I was late this morning). Last night, Paul and I were watching The Deadliest Catch , aka, world's greatest hour of television. This year is more of the same, catching crabs and making obscene amounts of money. Tragedy struck the Bering Sea last night (as it usually does), as a ship carrying 4 fisherman sunk. We got to ride along with the Coast Guard rescue crew to go fish (no pun intended) the guys out of the water. At the end of the show, one fisherman was safely in the chopper but we have to wait till next week to see what happened to the others, and to see who brings in the biggest pot. Personally, my money is on Sig Hansen, world's greatest crab fisher. (and pictured above). If you want to check out Sig's website, it's pretty great. Anyway, we were channel check...

As if you didn't already know, the Red Sox and Curt Schilling open their season tonight against The Kansas City Royals and Gil Meche. Personally I try to make it my rule in life to never trust anyone named Gil. Obviously a ton of preview articles today. I'll list them out in order of my favorites, along with my favorite part, incase you don't have time to read all 23 like I do. Beckett chills: Boston's ace-in-waiting has discovered a comfort zone following difficult 2006 season , by Rob Bradford. "I had been a part of a lot of different things, but that is totally different," said Beckett of the opener. "Fenway Park. First game of the season. Boston, Massachusetts. Everybody is pretty excited. I remember warming up and thinking this is right up there with Game 6 of the World Series. It had the same feeling" (hands down the best article out there today) Kevin Gray on Baseball: Finally, the real thing , by Kevin Gray (obvioulsy) Winter came much ear...